The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is an 1876 novel about a young boy growing up along the Mississippi River. It is set in the 1840s in the fictional town of St. Petersburg, inspired by Hannibal, Missouri, where Twain lived as a boy. In the novel Tom Sawyer has several adventures, often with his friend Huckleberry Finn. Originally a commercial failure, the book ended up being the best selling of any of Twain's works during his lifetime.Though overshadowed by its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the book is by many considered a masterpiece of American literature, and was one of the first novels to be written on a typewriter.-EXTENDED CONTENTBook IntroductionBook Plot SummaryBook Critical Analysis